


Interested

by Kellie_116



Series: 31 Days of Fic 2018 [3]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 02:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16823104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kellie_116/pseuds/Kellie_116
Summary: Every day of December, I'll be posting a song-inspired one-shot of a different Penelope Garcia pairing! Check out myplaylistfor all the songs!





	Interested

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by "The Only Exception" by Paramore

Penelope Garcia had told herself she was done with love.

Everything with Shane had gone to hell (although it had landed her in Virginia, so she supposed it had worked out well enough in the end), Kevin had disappeared when she told him she wasn't ready for marriage, things with Sam had never been quite what she'd wanted them to be, and when Derek and Savannah had moved in together she'd been forced to accept that romance between her and Morgan was just never meant to be, no matter how much she'd wanted to believe to the contrary.

She'd harbored other crushes over the years, of course – her infatuation with one Emily Prentiss had been particularly notable, and Penelope still missed her dearly now that she was across the pond at Interpol – but none of her serious relationships had worked out, and none of her silly crushes had ever gone anywhere. Garcia knew she wasn't getting any younger – she was almost forty, for Pete's sake! – so she'd finally decided that she would just have to learn to be happy with Sergio as the only special someone in her life.

The most painful part of accepting her singleness was letting go of the idea of ever being a mother. She'd wanted children for as long as she could remember, but she had decided that perhaps it just wasn't in the cards for her. She knew she could adopt, of course, and she'd it wasn't that she'd ever been particularly attached to the idea of having specifically biological children, but she just didn't want to raise kids on her own. Whenever she'd imagined herself as a parent, it had been with a teammate, a partner to support her and laugh with her and fall into bed with her at the end of the night.

She'd given up on love, though, so all that was out of the question.

Or so she'd thought.

The moment she saw Dr. Tara Lewis, Garcia was awestruck. This woman was gorgeous, and with a "doctor" in front of her name and an FBI shield on her hip she had to be smart, and – Penelope remembered rather sheepishly the way she'd reacted when she first heard about Alex Blake – from all that she could tell, Lewis was _nice_.

" _She's magnificent_ ," Garcia whispered at Hotch, eyes sparkling as she shook hands with this beautiful, wonderful woman she'd barely met, then scurried off to her office while Agent Hotchner and Dr. Lewis talked about her potential future with the BAU.

It was a while later, as she was shutting down her systems and packing up her things for the night, that Garcia heard an unfamiliar knock on her office door. She could usually tell who was there by the way they knocked – Reid was a few quick rasps, Derek tapped out a funny rhythm, Rossi practically banged her door down – but whomever was at the door knocked gently in a way that seemed uncharacteristic of any of her usual visitors.

She smoothed down her skirt as she headed towards the door ( _what if it's the director? One has to make a good, wrinkle-free impression_ ), then turned the knob to greet her mystery guest.

"Oh!" she exclaimed softly as she swung the door open and found herself gazing into deep brown eyes that seemed far too familiar to belong to someone she'd only just met. "Dr. Lewis!"

The agent smiled softly. "Please, call me Tara," she said. Between her beautiful eyes, her smooth voice, and her sweet perfume, Penelope was practically floating, and if she'd had her wits more about her she would've chastised herself for being so infatuated. After all, she'd barely met this woman! As it was, though, Garcia just stood there, grinning like an idiot, so Dr. Lewis – _Tara_ – kept talking.

"Looks like you and I are going to be teammates," she said with a smile that had Garcia weak at the knees.

"Teammates," Penelope repeated dumbly after a moment. "So, you, uh, you got the job?"

"Um, yeah," Tara's grin faltered a bit. Garcia had seemed to like her when they'd met in the bullpen earlier, but something about her behavior now seemed off. "Is that okay with you?"

"Is that okay with me," Penelope murmured, still fixated on those perfect eyes. "Is that o – " She jolted mid-sentence, blinked quite a few times in the span of about a second, and blushed deep red with the realization that she'd been echoing what Tara said like an absolute moron. "Yes! I mean, is a gorgeous, brilliant woman joining my team okay with me?" She scoffed, then blushed again when she realized Tara was smirking.

"I'm glad you feel that way," Tara nodded a little and adjusted her bag on her shoulder, "Because I actually asked Agent Hotchner where your office was so I could come down here and ask you to dinner."

Penelope's jaw dropped open. She stammered, and her mind raced. _This couldn't be happening. Was this happening?_ "You wanted to- me?" She was nearly whispering, afraid that she was misunderstanding or had misheard somehow, because this was literally the definition of too good to be true.

"Yeah," Lewis either didn't notice Garcia's shock or chose to ignore it, but either way Penelope was grateful. The last thing she wanted right now was to talk about how ridiculous she was acting. "There's a really good Thai place down the street if you're interested."

 _Oh, I'm interested_ , Penelope thought lasciviously, her stomach quivering with excitement, but she couldn't come up with anything she actually felt confident saying, so she just continued to stand there with her mouth gaping open. _Fantastic, Penelope. Real attractive._

"I'm sorry," Tara finally said with a sigh. "I didn't mean to overstep. I guess I misunderstood earlier. You're just _really_ pretty, and I had to at least give it a shot. Forget I asked." She turned to head back down the hall, and Garcia absolutely panicked. _No!_

"Wait!" She called. Tara turned over her shoulder, and Penelope finally grinned. "Believe me, babe, I'm interested," She flirted, and Tara gave a small laugh as a grin spread back across that beautiful face. "Let me get my purse."


End file.
